Born in Boston, Massachusetts, 29 December 1809, Albert Pike is asserted within the Southern Jurisdiction as the man most responsible for the growth and success of the Scottish Rite from an obscure Masonic Rite in the mid-1800’s, to the international fraternity that it became. Pike received the 4th through the 32nd Degrees from the American Masonic historian, Dr. Albert G. Mackey, in Charleston, S.C., in March 1853, and, in that same year, Pike was appointed Deputy Inspector for Arkansas.

At this point, the degrees were in only a rudimentary form, and often only included a brief history and legend of each degree as well as other brief details which usually lacked a workable ritual for their conferral. In 1855, the Supreme Council appointed a committee to prepare and compile rituals for the 4th through the 32nd Degrees. That committee was composed of Albert G. Mackey, John H. Honour, W. S. Rockwell, C. Samory, and Albert Pike. Of these five committee members, Pike did all the work of the committee.

In March 1858, Pike was elected a member of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and in January 1859 he became its Grand Commander. The War between the states interrupted his work on the Scottish Rite rituals. After the War, he moved to Washington, DC, and in 1868 his revision, and de-christianisation, of the rituals was complete. Pike also wrote lectures for all the degrees which were published in 1871 under the title “Morals & Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite”.